Help

Newsletter

Mary Landers covers environmental news. Her blog highlights both what’s unique environmentally in the Savannah area and how coastal Georgia’s water, land, wildlife, pollution and energy issues fit into the global picture.

Posted March 20, 2013 12:17 pm

Lights out at City Hall

At my house, the power goes out pretty regularly. It happens when the wind blows, when it rains, when a squirrel climbs on a wire. Just yesterday I woke up to the clock radio flashing the time to indicate power had been interrupted.

Of course, when I want the lights to go out, like when my kids leave a room, they don't. I feel like I'm channeling my own dad when I stomp around the house yelling "When we leave a room we turn off the lights." That once prompted my younger son to respond innocently but tellingly, "I don't!"

Still, spurred by both cheapness and a conservation ethic, I try. So this item from the city of Savannah interested me:

Savannah City Hall will go dark for an hour this Saturday night as part of a global event to promote energy conservation called Earth Hour.

From 8:30-9:30 p.m. March 23, all the lights at City Hall will be turned off, including the lights that illuminate the iconic gold dome and clock face. Savannah is encouraging its residents, businesses and neighboring government organizations to participate in Earth Hour by also going dark for the hour.

We've reported on Earth Hour before and noted that global landmarks including the Golden Gate Bridge, the Eiffel Tower and the Pyramids of Giza have all gone dark for the hour.

Savannah reports it's participating in Earth Hour as part of its Thrive initiative, which promotes environmental sustainability with the goal of reducing City Government’s carbon footprint by 15 percent by the year 2020.

Earth Hour bills itself as the largest voluntary action for the environment in the world, with almost 7,000 cities and towns across 152 countries and territories taking part. Learn more by visiting www.earthhour.org